Jack Wright's EURO 2024 Final
31/10 Bet Builder

Spain have been without question the best team throughout the tournament. Drawn in the “group of death” with fellow top 10 sides Croatia and Italy they not only topped the section but won all three games without conceding a goal. Since then, they have overcome hosts Germany and top ranked European nation and world number three France. Six games, six wins, and all achieved before the dreaded penalty shootout was required. No team have managed that in one European Championship before.

Spanish sides also have a truly incredible record in international and club finals winning all 22 they have participated in since 2001. England have underwhelmed throughout this tournament but have shown great resilience to make it this far having come within seconds of elimination at the Round of 16 stage. Incredibly the Three Lions best chance of lifting the trophy could be to take this final all the way to penalties.

I was expecting a turgid affair when Spain met France in the semi-final. However, the fluid, exciting high risk, high reward brand of football that Luis de la Fuente insists on even brought the ultra-cautious French out of their shell and we saw three goals in the opening 25 minutes. It is no surprise La Roja are the top scorers at Euro 2024 having hit the back of the net 13 times and their six games have seen an average of exactly 2.5 goals. With 10 goals in regular time of their three knockout fixtures that average increases to 3.33.

England’s first five games all went under 2.5 but most of those were fairly cat and mouse against nations ranked well below them. With this confident Spain side sure to come out all guns blazing it could suit Gareth Southgate’s men ability to spring a counterattack. Also consider the head coach has a lot of artillery to call off the bench should he need goals as we have already seen several times.

Spain cruised through the group stages without conceding a goal in any of their three games. However, since then it has been a different story with Georgia, Germany and France all getting on the scoresheet. Consequently, all games ticked the both teams to score box. England may not have seen so many fireworks as the Spanish but four of their last five games in Germany have also seen both teams score. Possibly as a result of a defence that has not played together all too many times and you feel if one side is going to exploit that weakness it will be the Spanish.

Expect this one to continue a recent trend of goals when these two nations play each other. There have been 12 goals equally split across the last three meetings with over 2.5 goals and both teams to score landing in all of them.